Graves committed to cap Rawls’ minimum prison sentence at 14 1/2 years. The maximum could be as much as 30 years.

The shooting happened around 2:30 a.m. inside a house at 359 E. Columbia, a location police identified as an alleged “blind pig,” where gambling and after-hours alcohol and food sales allegedly were going on.

The two men got into an argument in the kitchen after Rawls allegedly said something disrespectful to a woman.

At Rawls’ probable-cause hearing in January, an eyewitness testified that she saw Smith and Rawls struggling on the floor, Rawls on his back, Smith partially on top of him. The witness said she saw Rawls reach in the waistband of his pants, saw something “black,” then heard multiple gunshots.

The witness said the confrontation started after Smith came up the stairs into the kitchen and tried to shove Rawls out of the room after another woman in the kitchen asked Rawls to leave because he was bothering her. Thompson testified that only she, two other women, Smith and Rawls were in the kitchen at the time, while a large crowd partied loudly in the basement.

The witness testified that Rawls, rather than leaving the kitchen, took a swing at Smith, who then pulled Rawls to the floor and got on top of him.

Court records show Rawls had two prior felony drug convictions: possession of less than 25 grams of a controlled substance in 1999 and marijuana possession, double penalty, in 2003.